Tag: Kids sport

Well today we headed to the Sunshine Coast to watch Ryan and his crew compete in the Junior Head of the River. At Ryan’s school, the rowing program starts a year later than the rest of the GPS schools, and they tend to get a little bit of a touch up for the first year or 2, but trend towards success in the later years. (i.e. the 1st and 2nd crew came first in their races yesterday)

There had been a lot of rain in the last week, and during the night it bucketed down. I was given the tip to take a lot of wet weather gear, as the show will go on regardless… So a weary Ryan rises far too early for a Saturday morning, and I get him to school before 5:00 AM, as all of the boys travel together to the regatta on buses. We travelled up a few hours later.

When we arrived, though greeted with a quick rain shower, we got a great feeling about the day. The place was was almost like a carnival

Officials at the finish line

A Rollins fan amongst the Terrace supporters

Ryan and crew setting off, got to say good luck (hopefully not embarassing him too much)

The boys previous best place for the season was 3rd, and the previous week they got two – 4th places. The boys got a great start and when looking from a distance, as they headed towards us, they looked to be close to the TSS crew who had dominated all season. The boys picked up their stroke rate, and actually were in the lead. They went stroke for stroke to the finish line, and it was too close to call it from where we were standing, but the announcer called Ryan’s crew the winners.

Going for it towards the finish line, it was very close!

We grabbed lunch together and I caught this moment with Ryan and Sue

Ryan receiving his pennant

With crew (sans Thomas) after the presentation

Winners pennant

It was a great day, and a perfect end to the rowing season. I will be enjoying the alarm not going off at 4:00 on Saturdays though!

After a good day yesterday getting my project under way at a friend’s house, who is a freelance software guy, today I need to get some foundation stones right for the project. I need to use a concept that I thought would only ever be theory to me. learnt in a uni subject many moons ago. Graph Theory. No nice pie charts or lines diagrams, but networks like say a subway map. You create the subway map (graph) with all of the stops and the time / distance between them, so you can work out the fastest route, what stations are with 1,2, x stops… Enough of the dry stuff, but it was good to crack open the old text book expecting to see a newspaper bookmark clipping of Paul Keating’s recession we had to have comment.

Old text removed from the archives to sit near the action

I needed to see the doctor today with the results of my blood tests. A problem with being an adopted kid is not knowing any family medical history, but that’s the way it is, and I am all good with this. I have been bouncing around different doctors for the last couple of years trying to find one with the ‘right’ bedside manner ,as it were. Well today I had a 2nd date with my current doc, and I will probably stay with him. He is an Asian doctor and is very blunt with his demeanour , and I like that! When I said “Hey, I have lost 14kg , and feeling fantastic!”, his immediate reply was “You can lose some more”. Love it!

It reminded me of someone I worked with 13 or so years ago, Elleen, who was also blunt, and again without malice. When our son Ryan was born, I was explaining his size and that he was “big” on the percentile stats. Her immediate reply was “Big as in tall, or big as in fat like you”. Priceless!

The doc’s comment was in front of mind as I pushed myself harder at the gym follow the consultation, so it is great motivation!

Need to hit the treadmill harder for a better response from doc next time!

The kids sport is now to a level where we have commitments 6 days a week (well we actually have a make up game coming up on Sunday, but that’s not the norm). So it’s a mad dash through traffic to get Tegan to touch training, then her game following, and I then track across to pick up Ryan from his rowing training. Sue then arrives for the game of touch whilst us boys are on our way home. We have it easy though, both Sue and I were squadies (swimming squad) with up to 11 training sessions, and then 2 x club nights that our respective folks had to get us to.

I love this reach of the Brisbane River, and the boat shed is right here

The boys head up from training (long dist shot to protect the identity)